More than 400 security and privacy researchers and scientists from 30 countries have signed an open letter warning that proposed online age verification laws are flawed.

The 405 signatories are responding to the worldwide initiatives to introduce age assurance technologies to limit access to child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and other potentially harmful content on the internet.

“We share the concerns about the negative effects that exposure to harmful content online has on children, and we applaud that regulators dedicate time and effort to protect them. However, we fear that, if implemented without careful consideration of the technological hazards and societal impact, the new regulation might cause more harm than good,” they wrote in an open letter.

The experts argue that age verification tools aren’t suited to solving the problem of limiting access to harmful content, as they are easy to bypass. Underaged internet users can circumvent restricted content by using a VPN, borrowing someone else’s identity, or using AI tools to alter photos.

In addition, age checks reduce privacy and include risks such as data breaches and increased surveillance. Also, age verification may make users feel less safe online because the online behavior of others isn’t eliminated – rather, it's simply relocated.

Furthermore, the scientists warn that mandatory age checks could deepen digital inequality because not everyone has access to government-issued IDs. Some may lack the necessary skills to navigate complex verification systems, such as elderly people, undocumented migrants, and asylum seekers.

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Age verification tools may also come with societal implications. For example, systems designed to verify age could later be expanded to enforce other forms of access control, potentially enabling censorship or political abuse. Concentrating such power in governments, platforms, or software providers, the researchers argue, runs counter to the decentralized design of the internet.

However, the main argument put forward by the experts is that there’s no clear scientific evidence that banning minors from platforms has a positive effect on their mental health or development.

“Given the potential risks and available alternatives, deploying a technology with such wide impact without understanding its implications for the online security and privacy of individuals, communities, and societies cannot be called a proportional solution,” the experts concluded.

The signatories recommend that governments should systematically study the benefits and harms of age verification tools in countries where they have been deployed, such as Australia and the United Kingdom. In the meantime, other alternatives should be implemented to tackle the risks of age-checking systems.

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